Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Venture Backed Exits Down in 2011, Dollars Up

A new report this morning from Dow Jones VentureSource says that the number of exits of U.S., venture-backed companies was down in 2011, although total deal values were up. Dow Jones said it found that there were 522 mergers, acquisitions, buyouts, and IPOs during the year, totaling $53.2 billion. The number of deals was down 14 percent, although capital raised was up 26 percent, mostly due to the successful IPOs of Zynga and Groupon. The report found that companies raised a median of $17M in venture financing before M&A or buyout, and took a median of 5.3 years to build their company before acquisition, at a median price of $71M.